Worried? No, We Smell Victory

Jon Favreau writes in the Daily Beast that Republicans must be really worried Obamacare will succeed. It’s an interesting spin, but shows the echo chamber in which Favreau and his listserve companions operate. Writes Favreau:

I know, we’re all supposed to think the End Is Nigh because the government has decided to give the 10 percent of large employers who don’t insure their workers another 365 days to do so before levying a small penalty. This could not possibly be a reasonable accommodation to protect jobs and businesses, because as everybody knows, this president hates jobs and businesses.

No, “the government” didn’t decide that, the executive branch decided all on its own to change the law, without input from the branch of government that is supposed to change laws.

The end would indeed be nigh for the law if the Obama administration acted with integrity — which is unfortunately an almost laughable idea.

It isn’t only the percentage of business that don’t offer health insurance as part of their benefits package who are affected — it’s 100% of large employers, because they all would have had to submit their offerings to the IRS to see if they were individually “affordable” by each employee during every month of 2014.

If this is a “reasonable accommodation to protect jobs”, what will happen next year? Will another delay then be unreasonable? The smug, authoritarian tone, in which Americans should be happy with the “accommodation” of the rulers in Washington, signals how far we have fallen.

Whether the President “hates jobs and business”, besides being a straw man, doesn’t really determine whether the motivation is to protect “jobs and business”. He could hate them and still realize he needs them. In fact, like most leftists, for President Obama businesses exist to provide jobs and health care to their employees, not to maximize the mutual benefit to customers and business owners.

Republicans are mostly worried about having another stupid entitlement program stuck in place. We know the ones we have now are harmful, but politically too entrenched to repeal. As the Obama Depression lasts into its fifth year, isn’t it time we figured out that his big government policies are the reason why?